Welcome to Lasting Strides

The book "Lasting Strides" was published as a tribute to one of the pioneers of local athletics, my father, Goh Teck Phuan who played an influential role in the success of some of our top athletes in Singapore. It is also a book to record the passion and devotion of athletes and officials in Singapore athletics.

Lasting Strides was eventually launched on 17 November 2007 at The Arts House in Singapore with some 150 guests. Included among the guests were a former minister, sports administrators and officials, former national athletes and many of whom had not seen each other since their active days. Excess funds over the publication cost amounting to $20,000 was given to Swift Athletes Association which my father co founded in 1947 to manage for athletes in need of financial assistance. Swift named their Annual Cross Country run in my father's name. We gave the book to all schools, libraries and public institutions so that our young will become more aware of some of our home grown athletes. They may be of a different generation. But the way these trail blazers competed with passion to reach the regional and international stage despite obstacles can be an inspiration to today's youths.

In publishing the book, I did not realize that I had published a modest book on the history of track and field in Singapore and the book launch had organised one of the largest group of old national athletes together in a room at the same time!! It was heart warming to see the former athletes catching up with each other and autographing each other’s books. It was about time that they be recognized again and not be forgotten!

In order that the spirit of the book continues, we now have a web site which has the whole contents of the book in chapters. We have also added new material like the slide show that was presented at the book launch and the video of the book launch. There is also a photo gallery which contains many sports photos that could not be included in the book. These photos are classified by decades. Additional photos have also been provided with the courtesy of Swifts and individual athlete’s private collection. Should there be other relevant photos which would like to be posted in the photo gallery, please email the photos to us and state the name of the athlete or event and which decade it belongs to. We, however, reserve the right to decide whether to post the photos on the web site.

This book was not meant to be all encompassing in view of the budget and time constraints. It is a celebration of the achievements of these unsung heroes and heroines. There are so many athletes that we would have liked to feature in the section “Colours of Passion” and we apologise if they have been inadvertently left out.

Past and present athletes may find it useful to use this web site as a means of connecting with each other. We will maintain a list of athletes contact details and should they want to contact each other, simply contact us and we will notify the party concerned. Please feel free to email us with any comments that you may have. We have a blog section which is under construction and awaiting the right person to administer the blog.

We hope that you will enjoy the web site and in the process, salute these unsung heroes of track and field in Singapore.

Ivan Goh - Publisher
21 January 2009

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